Gas Pump Prices on the Vineyard Top Most Other Places in America

Islanders have endured another summer of steep prices at the gas
pump. Another season of shelling out more bucks to get from here to
there than Americans across the nation. Another year of trying to figure
out how fuel prices managed to jump about 41 cents a gallon in the
five-mile trek across the Sound.

The complaints are warranted. Prices for regular unleaded gasoline
climbed to nearly $2 a gallon this week - higher than practically
any town, city or village in the United States.

Folks down in Nashville, Tenn. snagged regular gas at the bargain
price of $1.29 a gallon this week. Drivers in Detroit are shelling out
about $1.44 a gallon. In the desert of Palm Springs, Californians are
paying $1.63 a gallon for the low-octane brew. On the tip of Florida,
vacationers in Key West are paying $1.61 a gallon.

Less accessible places didn't fare much worse. In the virtual
island of Broken Bow, Neb. - where the nearest town is 30 miles
away - Doug at Trotter Service Station is charged $1.44 a gallon
for his non-brand gasoline. In Honolulu, a busy Shell station charged
$1.64 a gallon yesterday. On Bainbridge Island - connected to
Washington state by a bridge - a local Chevron station charged
$1.39 a gallon, lower than stations in Seattle.

A little closer to home, Block Islanders paid $1.90 per gallon at
the only gas station on the small island off the coast of Rhode Island.

Just across the Sound, Falmouth stations were charging around $1.58
a gallon for regular unleaded this week.

Only Nantucket beat the Vineyard's steep prices, with a price
of $2.03 per gallon at a local Exxon Mobil station. Nantucket fuel
distributer John Stackpole blames the 30-hour boat trip from New York
and the island's high cost of living for Nantucket's high
gas prices. The only good news, says Mr. Stackpole, is that drivers
don't have to go very far on Nantucket.

Not necessarily so on Martha's Vineyard, where a round trip
from Main street Edgartown to the Gay Head Cliffs is 36 miles.

Needless to say, Island residents are all ears when it comes to
hearing about fuel price relief. Those promises have been floating over
the airwaves and printed on newspaper pages this summer, compliments of
gas station developers making their way through a development of
regional impact review at the Martha's Vineyard Commission. The
promise of cheaper fuel hinges on project approval from the regional
planning body.

Tisbury Fuel Services Inc. - whose principals have proposed a
gas station in Tisbury's State Road corridor three other times in
the past three years - offered a discounted fuel contract to
commission members if the board approves a two-pump filling station on
High Road in Tisbury. Quite simply, they aim to sell fuel anywhere from
eight to 21 cents less than the Island's eight other gas stations,
cheaper than the other State Road gas station developer whose plan also
sits in front of the MVC. That gas station proposal, Gervais and
Goldborough, if built, would be located a few blocks away from Tisbury
Fuel Services.

The logistics of discounted fuel - and the reaction from
existing fuel station owners - are not so simple.

"They'll have a bookkeeping system that requires a
lawyer to keep track of," said Marshall Carroll of Menemsha
Texaco.

Indeed, Tisbury Fuel Services's has laid out a three-page
proposed contract full of clauses and conditions. In the first five
years of business, the owners say they will sell gasoline 36 cents above
wholesale price - a cost now hanging in the $1.45 range. Taxes,
the distributor's mark-up, delivery fees and the rack price make
up the wholesale price.

Tisbury Fuel Services' fixed discount for Islanders would
climb a few cents after five years, and another few cents after 10
years. In addition, they will contribute a penny per gallon sold to an
Island affordable housing group.

"The one potential detriment of this is that it would draw
customers from other gas stations," said Tisbury Fuel Services
attorney Hillary Schultz to commission members at a public hearing in
July. "But this is a benefit to many at the detriment of a few.
And I don't really think [other Island gas stations] deserve that
consideration, because they enjoyed high prices for so long."

Gas station owners across the Island - in a rare show of
solidarity - have taken off the gloves.

In a letter signed by all gas station owners, Airport Fuel Service
owner Michael Rotondo - who also pitched lower fuel prices during
commission review six years ago - said: "There are
approximately 12 million to 13 million gallons of fuel used on
Martha's Vineyard each year. This is a finite number. No matter
how many gas stations you place within the community, this number will
not change.

"If the new gas stations were to capture a share of the
marketplace, they would hope to pump approximately 1.2 million gallons
per year, thus taking away from the established stations that have
worked hard for many years serving the Island by providing fuel to our
residents and visitors alike, while serving as an important linchpin in
the Island economy by employing local workers," he continued.

Exactly how much of a profit gas station owners pocket is one of the
most mysterious aspects of the Island economy.

A Gazette probe two years ago revealed a 42 to 49 cent difference
between what Mobil station owners pay for each gallon of gas and what
Island consumers pay for that same gallon. This difference factors
wholesale price of Providence gasoline, taxes, delivery costs and
Steamship Authority fares. The Gazette could not complete a similar
price probe for Texaco fuel - which is barged from New Bedford by
Island business R.M. Packer Co., where the gasoline is stored in tanks
on the Vineyard Haven waterfront before delivery to Island stations
aboard 3,500-gallon trucks.

Station owners contend that nearly all of that profit margin is
swallowed by high rents and mortgages, high labor costs and insurance
premiums.

Mr. Rotondo said his gains range from 20 to 32 cents per gallon
depending on the season. If he managed to sell a million gallons -
which Mr. Rotondo said he does not - he could make $200,000
minimally. He said he must offset overhead with his car wash and oil
changes.